Latest / The Price of Music / Travis Scott, SZA and Future sued by Victory Boyd, Ed Sheeran launches music education foundation

Transcript

Travis Scott, SZA and Future sued by Victory Boyd, Ed Sheeran launches music education foundation · The Price of Music

• 1:20
  Hello and welcome to the Price of music, the show that looks at
• 1:23
  the money behind the music industry with me, Steve Lamack,
• 1:26
  MBE and music allies head of insight Stuart Dredge.
• 1:29
  That's an in joke, by the way, if you if you missed last week's
• 1:33
  show, Stuart, how was your first week back at work after the
• 1:36
  festive period do. You know, it's been all right,
• 1:39
  it's been all right. The news hasn't been too
• 1:41
  overwhelming, my inbox wasn't overwhelming, and now it's
• 1:44
  getting to the point to get a terribleness.
• 1:47
  Because we we had a deluge of emails from Tuesday onwards
• 1:51
  about new releases. It was almost as if someone,
• 1:55
  whoever had turned off the music industry on December the 23rd
• 1:59
  had suddenly turned, flicked the switch and turned the music
• 2:01
  industry back on. And it's, I mean, it's shaping
• 2:04
  into, it's much busier than January's of of recent years, I
• 2:10
  think. I mean, the very first week our
• 2:12
  show at least almost picked itself because there were less
• 2:17
  releases than usual and it was much more manageable.
• 2:21
  But all of a sudden I had a look at the list of potential
• 2:24
  playlist tracks for six music this week.
• 2:27
  There's a playlist meeting every Tuesday and it was almost as
• 2:31
  long as some of the lists which you see around May, June time,
• 2:36
  from April through to early June, which is sort of the
• 2:39
  busiest time if you're a musician.
• 2:40
  By the way, here's a tip. There's two weeks in the middle
• 2:43
  of August where the number of records up a playlist is very
• 2:48
  minimal. If you can fight, if you want to
• 2:50
  put yourself in front of people in the music media, there's a
• 2:53
  couple of weeks in the middle of August, which is, well, I shall
• 2:56
  I say at least a comparatively better time.
• 2:59
  But anyway, in terms of breaking news, then not too busy, but
• 3:02
  what's I'll tell you what we should start with this week
• 3:06
  because at the start of last week's program, we gave some of
• 3:10
  our predictions of things that we thought might happen or
• 3:13
  dominate the news in 2025. One of which one of the things I
• 3:17
  mentioned was the government's consultation on ticketing, which
• 3:21
  I, I said that will be announced any day soon.
• 3:24
  It was announced the day after our last episode.
• 3:27
  We should talk about this is the consultation which is called Put
• 3:32
  Fans First, a consultation on the resale of live events
• 3:36
  tickets. And it primarily, I guess it's
• 3:40
  it's it's mainly about ways of stamping out or at least
• 3:42
  restricting the operations of ticket touts, which is something
• 3:45
  which Labour had already committed to even before they
• 3:48
  came to power. But this is from, I quote you
• 3:51
  from the government's own press release about the consultation,
• 3:54
  which says the consultation will look at new measures to prevent
• 3:58
  consumers being fleeced by ticket outs as part of
• 4:02
  government's plan for change. It will also look into pricing
• 4:06
  practices in the live events sector, including so-called
• 4:10
  dynamic pricing. And I'm not expecting much
• 4:13
  change in the way of Dino. I don't think anyone's
• 4:17
  particularly going to interfere in how people set ticket prices.
• 4:21
  I think that's more about transparency, I think, and the
• 4:25
  fact that when you log in to buy a ticket, you know exactly how
• 4:29
  much that ticket is going to cost.
• 4:31
  But I think those are the main points on the agenda.
• 4:34
  Do you think Stuart? Yeah, I think so.
• 4:36
  And like you say, it was trailed last year.
• 4:37
  I think kiss time I gave a speech, didn't he said, we're
• 4:40
  going to do this, we're going to cap resale prices.
• 4:42
  And that's I think the big thing that that, that if you're
• 4:44
  reselling tickets online, there's going to be a cap.
• 4:46
  So you can't sell them for four times the price.
• 4:49
  Although it's, it seems to me and you can tell me probably
• 4:51
  that because they were saying there, there the consultation is
• 4:54
  going to explore a range of what the the cap could be from the
• 4:58
  original price up to a 30% uplift.
• 5:00
  So that could be the maximum, which is interesting.
• 5:02
  Kind of interesting to have a figure on that, isn't it?
• 5:04
  Yeah. I mean, so, so, yeah.
• 5:05
  So one of the one of the chief idea that the idea which a lot
• 5:08
  of people are gathering around is this is say a price resale
• 5:12
  cap, which means you can only resell a ticket for a certain
• 5:15
  percentage above the original cost.
• 5:18
  So it's in a way that's good because it means you and me.
• 5:21
  They're not outlawing reselling tickets, which was mentioned at
• 5:24
  one point. It means me and you we can still
• 5:27
  resell tickets, but only but not at a huge profit, except as you
• 5:33
  say, the the the options. I mean it could be anything at
• 5:38
  the moment. I think the industry obviously
• 5:40
  would favour a much lower uplift, you know, a much lower
• 5:45
  markup. So something around 10% you
• 5:48
  could add say if you're selling on a ticket.
• 5:51
  But in the actual, if you go to the consultation, it says one of
• 5:55
  the questions which it asks is what do you think the maximum
• 5:58
  uplift of a ticket sale resale? What should it be?
• 6:05
  No uplift at all. 10% or less between 10 and 20%, between 20
• 6:09
  and 30%. Now if it's 30%, I would argue
• 6:14
  that some secondary ticket outfits and to cope the
• 6:18
  government some touts. If it's 30%, I think is that
• 6:21
  still worth your while? Because it seems, it seems high
• 6:26
  and I think the industry certainly would much prefer it
• 6:28
  to be lower. I read a thing so I think the
• 6:31
  maybe the this is a start. I just picked up the Internet,
• 6:33
  but I think the average uplift on secondary sites is currently
• 6:37
  50%. So I think it's not that much
• 6:40
  like you say, it's not that big a difference.
• 6:41
  But the other thing I thought was interesting, I think they're
• 6:43
  suggesting limiting the number of tickets you can resell to
• 6:47
  however many you're allowed to buy on the primary market.
• 6:49
  So for example, if Oasis tickets go on sale and you're only
• 6:51
  allowed two per credit card, in theory you could only relist 2.
• 6:55
  And that could be interesting, couldn't it?
• 6:56
  In terms of people who are trying to kind of Hoover up
• 6:59
  loads of tickets and sell them, although it puts that sort of
• 7:02
  thing where there'll be loopholes whether it's.
• 7:04
  Yeah. I mean, and also how many
• 7:07
  different accounts will a ticket out, say, be in charge of?
• 7:13
  So it's just multiples of 2, isn't it?
• 7:16
  I suppose. I guess you're increasing their
• 7:17
  admin, giving them a headache, I think.
• 7:22
  And the other thing I talked about stronger fines and a
• 7:24
  licensing regime for secondary ticketing sites.
• 7:26
  So it sounds like they're, they're this is the important
• 7:28
  thing. I think when you have new laws
• 7:30
  and new rules to, well, what's the punishment if people don't,
• 7:34
  don't keep to them? And they seem to be thinking
• 7:36
  about that, don't they? And they're saying, right, well,
• 7:38
  there will be stronger fines. And when they say a licensing
• 7:41
  regime, and then if that means that you could, you could lose
• 7:43
  your license to be a resale platform if you don't keep to
• 7:45
  the rules. I'm not sure if that's the
• 7:46
  implication here or not, but it's going to have some teeth.
• 7:49
  I mean, there are an awful lot of questions.
• 7:52
  If you'd like to, to know more, dear listener, by the way, or
• 7:55
  you'd like to contribute to the consultation, there's a full
• 7:59
  list of all the questions on the gov.uk websites.
• 8:03
  If you put in something like fairer for fans, you'll put,
• 8:05
  you'll find it there. You can have a look.
• 8:07
  But there's quite a lot of questions about how responsible
• 8:12
  the secondary ticket selling platforms should be.
• 8:16
  Question 14 is should to sell platforms be required by law to
• 8:20
  verify certain key information provided by the reseller about a
• 8:24
  ticket, for example, original price and location within the
• 8:28
  venue? There's all sorts of things.
• 8:31
  And as you, as you say, should, should, should there be a series
• 8:35
  of fines and how will they be implemented?
• 8:39
  I mean it's obviously, I think one of the reasons Labour have
• 8:42
  turned to this is partly, and they mentioned this in the
• 8:46
  introduction to the consultation, is that according
• 8:51
  to research by I think it's Virgin Media, O2 ticket touts
• 8:56
  cost music fans an additional 145,000,000 lbs each year, which
• 9:05
  is just amazing eye watering amount isn't it?
• 9:07
  Anyway, we shall see What what comes of this, but if you'd like
• 9:11
  to say, if you'd like to know more, the consultation is online
• 9:15
  now next and I I simply have one line of notes for this, which is
• 9:20
  it's a big moment for TikTok in the US, Stuart.
• 9:24
  Let me get it. It is.
• 9:26
  It's a very big moment. Should I go into the background
• 9:29
  I suppose, in case anyone's not been following this blood?
• 9:31
  I think, yeah, I think you. Should so Joe Biden who is will
• 9:35
  soon not be the president. Well, no, he will be you still
• 9:37
  you still are the president when you leave, don't you?
• 9:39
  You're that's told. But the outgoing administration,
• 9:42
  US put this law in place saying that Bike Dance, which is Tik
• 9:44
  Tok's parent company, they had to sell TikTok in the US by 19th
• 9:49
  of January or have it banned from the app stores.
• 9:51
  And this is about links with a parent company and the Chinese
• 9:55
  government. And it's all about national
• 9:56
  security issues. They don't want TikTok in the US
• 9:59
  to be owned by a Chinese company.
• 10:01
  And Tik Tok's been fighting all the way along.
• 10:03
  And in Friday, there was kind of the last chance saloon for its
• 10:06
  efforts to avoid this. It was appearing in the Supreme
• 10:08
  Court where Tik Tok's lawyers argued that the law will harm
• 10:13
  free speech. We've got, I think it's 170
• 10:15
  million Americans using TikTok. Their free speech is going to be
• 10:18
  harmed if you ban it and the government arguing no, the harm
• 10:22
  to national security is bigger and that's why we think it
• 10:25
  should be sold or banned. And the Supreme Court judges
• 10:28
  with come how many eyes it's seven of them.
• 10:30
  I need to really be bone up on my American politics, don't I?
• 10:33
  They were hearing his arguments, asking questions and the gist of
• 10:38
  it seems to be from their questions that they were leaning
• 10:40
  towards not changing the law and giving tick tock that deadline
• 10:44
  of you have to be sold by next Sunday or we're going to ban
• 10:48
  you. They seem to be leaning towards
• 10:49
  the fact that they were more worried about national security
• 10:52
  and than they are about the kind of the potential freedom of
• 10:54
  speech harms. And the wild card, as in so many
• 10:58
  things right now in the world is that the day after this deadline
• 11:02
  falls, the new president Donald Trump takes office.
• 11:05
  His inaugurations on Monday, and he's been promising to save
• 11:10
  TikTok. This is part of his campaign is
• 11:12
  that I will save TikTok. He likes TikTok partly because
• 11:15
  he's quite popular on there, which is obviously a big thing
• 11:17
  in his mindset. You know, people like me on
• 11:19
  TikTok, his kind of movement that kind of make America great
• 11:23
  again. They've had quite good traction
• 11:25
  on TikTok. And he also sees it as, or in
• 11:28
  the past, he's talked of it as something he likes in comparison
• 11:31
  to Facebook, which he didn't like because they cracked down
• 11:34
  on him. Although in recent days, there's
• 11:36
  all kinds of stuff going on in recent days about Mehta,
• 11:38
  Facebook's company jumping to try and avoid Trump's wrath and
• 11:41
  doing all kinds of stuff that's going to design to cover.
• 11:44
  So it's all very, very moving. But so yes, so this deadline is
• 11:47
  Sunday and the Supreme Court will rule in the coming days and
• 11:52
  Sod's law, they will issue a ruling as we stop recording now.
• 11:56
  And when we go out tomorrow, they will be late, but they will
• 11:59
  say ruling saying, yes, we're going to postpone this deadline
• 12:02
  or we're going to overturn this law, although issue a ruling
• 12:04
  saying we're not. So as things stand, TikTok has
• 12:10
  said if we don't get this overturned, we will shut the app
• 12:14
  down. We're not going to sell it.
• 12:15
  We'll shut the app down. So as of Sunday, TikTok won't be
• 12:17
  available in the US, so it won't work there.
• 12:20
  And then there's another wild card, another, another
• 12:24
  marvellous gentleman wild card. Overnight.
• 12:27
  The reports that the Chinese officials, Chinese government is
• 12:30
  thinking maybe we could sell TikTok in the US to Elon Musk
• 12:34
  and let him run it. And that's a genuine report
• 12:36
  doing the wires today that Elon Musk might come in because he's
• 12:39
  obviously quite close with the Trump administration.
• 12:42
  Maybe he's done such a grandstand up job of running
• 12:45
  Twitter that maybe he should have TikTok.
• 12:48
  So there's a lot of moving parts here.
• 12:50
  TikTok may shut down in the US on Sunday.
• 12:53
  Elon Musk may suddenly appear and try and buy it or but who
• 12:57
  knows what's happening. And then Trump will take power
• 12:59
  and he'll be his administration will be in charge of overseeing
• 13:03
  this law that he seeming doesn't agree with.
• 13:06
  We should, we should make sure. I mean, the reason why this is
• 13:08
  obviously important to us is that TikTok has become a major
• 13:11
  part of the big record labels marketing plan now, isn't it?
• 13:17
  The the amount of music which is available on TikTok is
• 13:20
  astonishing and the impact it can have on certain tracks.
• 13:24
  Obviously, the ones that go viral do very well out of TikTok
• 13:27
  and there's also some money to be made by the artists there, as
• 13:30
  well as the promotional opportunities.
• 13:32
  It's true. I mean, every big album coming
• 13:34
  out in the, you know, the first six months of this year, they
• 13:37
  will already have planned their campaign and TikTok is like to
• 13:40
  be a really big part of it. So they're now having to sort of
• 13:42
  sit there and go right. If it's bam, what do we do?
• 13:45
  What they probably do is they have Plan B's which involve
• 13:48
  doing more on Instagram, which has a TikTok like feature or
• 13:52
  YouTube, which has its YouTube Shorts.
• 13:53
  So labels are really sitting there this week going right.
• 13:56
  We might have to tear up half our marketing plan and redo it.
• 14:01
  And then, yeah, there's a lot of artists who are on TikTok.
• 14:03
  And again, if you're an artist in America, in the US, it's
• 14:06
  unclear whether you'll be able to use the app after the ban.
• 14:09
  Like you won't be able to download it for sure.
• 14:10
  But will it still work there? And if not, how do you publish
• 14:14
  your videos on TikTok and what does it mean?
• 14:16
  For example, there's TikTok has a whole distribution arm called
• 14:18
  Sound on where actually you can upload your music to TikTok and
• 14:22
  then they distribute it for you to other streaming services.
• 14:25
  If you're an American artist doing that, that may go if it's,
• 14:28
  if it shuts down. So it's a, it's a big, it's a
• 14:31
  big story. And it's weird because I think
• 14:33
  in the, in the bigger scheme of things like Trump taking office,
• 14:36
  there's all, I mean, God knows what's going to happen on his
• 14:38
  first day. God knows what he'll announce,
• 14:40
  what laws will put in place. There's a lot of bigger things
• 14:42
  going on. And so it does for a little bit.
• 14:45
  Sometimes I feel a little bit cautious about saying TikTok is
• 14:49
  the most biggest decision he'll make because there's all kinds
• 14:52
  of stuff that happen. But for the the music industry,
• 14:54
  especially in the US, they are all watching this and going what
• 14:57
  is going to happen and what do we have to do about it?
• 14:59
  Right, this next story, I mean, how many times do suits like
• 15:04
  this hit the headlines? But this one, apparently this is
• 15:07
  one of the more interesting stories about copyrights and an
• 15:11
  artist going hang on a second. You've nicked my song.
• 15:15
  In this case, Travis Scott, Scissor and Future are being
• 15:19
  sued by Victory Boyd and her publishing company, Songs of
• 15:23
  Glory, for allegedly ripping off her song, like the way it sounds
• 15:27
  to create their 2023 hit Telekinesis.
• 15:31
  Who is Victory Boyd and does does Victory This is this is
• 15:35
  where my local newspaper training comes in.
• 15:38
  And does Victory have a chance of victory?
• 15:42
  It's just good that she's not called defeat because that would
• 15:44
  be nominated in terms of the worst.
• 15:47
  Yeah. So this is, I mean, MBW actually
• 15:49
  called this the first blockbuster copyright
• 15:51
  infringement lawsuit of the year, which is kind of a phrase
• 15:53
  that begs to think we're going to see a lot more of these.
• 15:55
  I think we all know this. So the one, so victory boy, she
• 15:59
  is a songwriter and an artist scientific nation, like you say,
• 16:02
  she's her own publishing company.
• 16:05
  And this is unusual in comparison some of the ones
• 16:08
  we've talked about recently, because a lot of the lawsuits
• 16:10
  we've talked about aren't they, they're, they're a song from
• 16:13
  like the 1970s or 80s that someone says has been ripped
• 16:16
  off. Whereas this is, it's a, it's a,
• 16:19
  it was a new one. It's 20/19.
• 16:20
  She wrote this song called like The Way It Sounds, and it's this
• 16:23
  really tangled story, according to the court filing, where I
• 16:26
  think she sent the original demo to Kanye West and he was going
• 16:29
  to work with it and use it for one of his albums, but didn't.
• 16:32
  And then she claims he played it to Travis Scott, who then got
• 16:35
  hold of a copy and used it. We're making Telekinesis.
• 16:38
  And then he got Scissor on board and and Future.
• 16:42
  And so the argument here is that she hadn't released it.
• 16:45
  She kind of shared it with someone.
• 16:47
  She wanted to be a collaborator and then it got taken on the
• 16:50
  news. And it's also interesting
• 16:52
  because she actually has a songwriting credit on the song
• 16:54
  that's been released. So I think she is listed as one
• 16:57
  of the Co songwriters. The lawsuit says she's she has
• 17:01
  an 8% share, I think, of the songwriting.
• 17:03
  But her argument is this was done without her permission and
• 17:05
  without her knowledge. So it's not that they haven't
• 17:09
  credited her, it's that she says, well, I wasn't asked and I
• 17:13
  think it all came to a head. There was I think they got there
• 17:15
  was an an advert wanting to use it the song.
• 17:18
  And so they came to her as 8% the songwriting and said, can we
• 17:21
  use the song that you've Co written?
• 17:22
  And she said what hang on what? No.
• 17:25
  And that's what's kind of spot this so.
• 17:27
  Right. OK.
• 17:27
  So it's, it's different to what we've usually dealt with in the
• 17:31
  past then, which is somebody saying that these 8 bars are
• 17:34
  obviously influence my my song. This is actually, this is more
• 17:39
  where tracing back where the song has come from and it being
• 17:44
  as as, as you say, being used without without permission.
• 17:47
  Yeah. So, and it's, it's one of those,
• 17:50
  you know, should we do our usual line here?
• 17:52
  You know, it's almost certainly going to be settled rather than
• 17:54
  go to court because it's in everyone's interest to settle
• 17:56
  it. But yeah, it's, it's one of
• 17:58
  those things that I think this happens all the time in the
• 18:00
  industry. If you're a songwriter, you
• 18:02
  share demos with people and you say, you know, there's a,
• 18:04
  there's a lot of this stuff going on in the industry where
• 18:07
  you will, you have written a song and you finished it and you
• 18:10
  send it to someone, say we could, could we work together on
• 18:12
  this? Oh yeah, I mean all the time.
• 18:14
  Isn't it because major, major artists, some of which some of
• 18:17
  whom don't write their own songs, obviously there are
• 18:20
  publishing companies on a daily basis forwarding them songs from
• 18:25
  songwriters they have on their books.
• 18:26
  So, yeah, songs are constantly flying around, aren't they?
• 18:30
  You know, I mean, imagine how many, I don't know how many
• 18:33
  songs are punted to a Beyoncé album.
• 18:36
  Or, you know, some of some of the big American pop acts will
• 18:40
  receive probably hundreds of songs a week.
• 18:44
  Yeah, And the nature of songwriting now is often you
• 18:46
  might, but you might take a song and you might use a part of it
• 18:49
  or build on it. You know, often you can.
• 18:51
  It's not just someone writes one song and Beyoncé uses it and
• 18:54
  there's one songwriter. Often these things do go to
• 18:57
  other writers and bits of them get chopped and chosen.
• 18:59
  And so. And that process does then can
• 19:03
  cause this kind of issue where someone says, I, I did share it
• 19:06
  willingly at this point, but this thing that happened later
• 19:09
  wasn't. So we'll see.
• 19:11
  I mean, you know, it's it's, it's, it's, it's one of those
• 19:15
  lawsuits that think that shines a light on the processes at work
• 19:18
  and and why it's not always that someone has heard of someone
• 19:20
  ripped off. There can be things.
• 19:22
  But interesting Kanye West, who seems to have been quite a key
• 19:25
  figure in how this song made its way from her to Joris Scott.
• 19:29
  He's not a defendant in a lawsuit.
• 19:31
  So he doesn't seem to be in trouble at the moment, which I
• 19:35
  thought was quite interesting. But I guess we'll see how it
• 19:37
  goes. I mean, the other thing is these
• 20:11
  cases take an awful lot of time and they probably aren't very
• 20:14
  expensive. It's high of this, you know,
• 20:16
  you've got to be really convinced that there's a
• 20:18
  possibility of winning at the end of it.
• 20:20
  I think otherwise it's a real gamble.
• 20:22
  There was that Ed Sheeran case, which obviously that was one of
• 20:25
  the times where I think Ed was had Ed been accused by somebody
• 20:30
  of stealing a part of a song. I think anyway, without that
• 20:33
  case was settled last year, which brings us quite nicely,
• 20:37
  actually. Talking of young Ed, Ed Sheeran
• 20:39
  this week announced the launch of a new foundation that will
• 20:43
  invest in music education for young people.
• 20:46
  I'm all for this, but tell us, tell us a little bit more about
• 20:49
  this. Yeah.
• 20:50
  Well, I mean, it's, it's, it's actually just, well, naturally.
• 20:53
  Hang on a second just before you do, because I know there might
• 20:56
  be a problem here. It's 2 two points, right?
• 21:00
  I suppose first of all, my first point is on a personal level,
• 21:04
  I'm, you know, I'm in the slightly embarrassing situation
• 21:07
  that when it comes to Ed Sheeran because I've never really
• 21:09
  engaged with this music. But at the same time, I, I, I
• 21:13
  don't think you can argue that he, he did work fantastically
• 21:17
  hard to get where he is and he's also been a big champion of
• 21:20
  grassroots venues. So obviously I, you know, I
• 21:22
  applaud him .2 I should make before Stuart does This story is
• 21:26
  Stuart supports Norwich City and Ed sponsors their rivals Ipswich
• 21:32
  Town. So anything derogatory that
• 21:35
  Stuart might might now say or if he delivers this story you're
• 21:39
  about to hear listeners through gritted teeth, then you'll know
• 21:43
  why. But on, on you, on you go.
• 21:47
  Yeah. Well, no.
• 21:48
  So I was going to mention that, but I was going to be very
• 21:49
  magnanimous about it. So I will proceed to do so
• 21:53
  slower. My reputation.
• 21:55
  I mean, Ed has made a share load of money.
• 21:56
  You know, he's one of the in terms of bang for buck.
• 21:59
  He's a solo artist. He plays alone on stage, he
• 22:02
  plays to stadiums. He's massive stream sales.
• 22:06
  He's made a lot of money. And I think like a lot of
• 22:07
  artists at his level, he's been thinking what what can I do with
• 22:10
  this money? What can I what can I do?
• 22:12
  There's more to life than my career of making money.
• 22:14
  What can I do with the money I've earned?
• 22:15
  And so you're right, he is. And actually I Ipswich Nora
• 22:18
  drove over aside. He has invested in his local
• 22:20
  team and, and done things for them and, you know, good on him,
• 22:24
  Although I, I, you know, I'm not too keen on the choice.
• 22:27
  He launched his own hot sauce couple a year and a half or two
• 22:30
  years ago. So he got into kind of launching
• 22:32
  other kinds of products that he because he loves, loves hot
• 22:35
  sauce. And like you say, he's really
• 22:38
  been, he's really put his put his money in his mouth in terms
• 22:41
  of the music venue trust and the independent venue.
• 22:43
  So he's been like he, he is by all accounts, a good egg.
• 22:45
  Like I've talked to his record label and they say he's good to
• 22:48
  work with, a solid guy, thinks about things.
• 22:50
  He thanks people when they've worked with him on something,
• 22:53
  you know, so he seems like a good bug and this so this kind
• 22:57
  of bears that out. So he's set up the Ed Sheeran
• 22:59
  Foundation and the cause it's focusing on is music education
• 23:02
  for young people. So you know, children and kids
• 23:06
  and it's going to, we've talked about it, haven't we every so
• 23:08
  often? Like we talk about grassroots
• 23:10
  music in terms of venues, but also about music in schools,
• 23:13
  access to music for kids. So his foundation is going to
• 23:17
  work with grassroots education organisations and state schools
• 23:21
  and they're going to give me instruments and kit and studio
• 23:24
  and practice time and music lessons and mentorship.
• 23:27
  So it is a good thing, I think. And it, it ties into something
• 23:30
  happening in the UK at the moment, which I think we've,
• 23:32
  we've again, we've, we've touched on it, but maybe not.
• 23:34
  Maybe we could do more about it next year.
• 23:36
  The music has been kind of ill served, hasn't it, by the
• 23:39
  education system in recent years.
• 23:42
  Like the, it was kind of sidelined a bit.
• 23:44
  Maybe there weren't qualified music teachers at schools, there
• 23:47
  wasn't as much time and, and access stuff.
• 23:49
  And now I think the government has been talking about having a
• 23:51
  music education plan. The music industry talks about
• 23:54
  it a bit more and now Ed Sheeran is saying yeah, I'm putting some
• 23:57
  money into this. So I'm.
• 23:59
  I am football rivalry aside, all for this, and it's a good thing.
• 24:02
  Yeah, I. Think I think it's brilliant
• 24:04
  this because any opportunity because music it's it's all
• 24:08
  about having it's just it should there should be access for all
• 24:12
  to music for anyone who wants to pick up an instrument a young
• 24:17
  young person who wants to pick up and play an instrument.
• 24:20
  You know the it's just about opportunity, isn't it?
• 24:23
  And if this increases the opportunity for or anyone to
• 24:27
  have a go to see whether there's, whether they have a
• 24:30
  particular talent for whatever it is in music, I think
• 24:35
  encouraging young people into music.
• 24:37
  And I think there was a great bit in the in the story that I I
• 24:41
  read there was he makes the point that a lot of people, and
• 24:47
  I'm sure maybe not the case these days, but certainly when I
• 24:50
  was growing up, music wasn't seen as a proper job.
• 24:54
  And so it doesn't get a certain amount of investment.
• 24:58
  And sometimes, you know, certain educational authorities won't,
• 25:01
  you know, throw money at it. And it's just that sort of,
• 25:04
  yeah, when you folks say, well, that's not a proper, proper job,
• 25:06
  but Ed Sheeran's saying it is a proper job.
• 25:09
  There are thousands of people who work in music.
• 25:12
  It creates billions for the British economy.
• 25:15
  And yet we don't put enough money into encouraging the next
• 25:18
  generation who will be part of this.
• 25:21
  So I think, I think this is a, it's a, it's a great thing.
• 25:24
  Well done and. He yeah, and he talked about the
• 25:26
  team around him in that, that I think he's an Instagram post and
• 25:29
  talked about the team around me. You know, he's very cognizant of
• 25:32
  what makes his what makes him his money, what makes his career
• 25:34
  work is the people around him in the system.
• 25:36
  So yeah, I think it's, I mean, we could go back to that
• 25:38
  edition. I've, I mean, his music.
• 25:41
  I've I like some of his songs. I don't know all of it very
• 25:43
  well, but people, they never get weirdly cross about Ed Sheeran,
• 25:46
  don't they? I don't know if it's because
• 25:48
  he's so big that maybe when you have that level of bigness,
• 25:50
  people, people get cross about you.
• 25:51
  But nothing I've seen of him ever.
• 25:53
  He he doesn't seem like a monster.
• 25:55
  He doesn't, you know, he seems to have a good head on his
• 25:58
  shoulders even when he's become big.
• 25:59
  So, you know, yeah, it's I I can't really get angry about
• 26:02
  him, and I'm glad this is happening.
• 26:04
  There you go. There there.
• 26:06
  No, gritted, not a single teeth was.
• 26:08
  Gritted during the night, everybody.
• 26:10
  Anyone who's got a beef with Ed Ed Sheeran, for what?
• 26:13
  For whatever reason, if a Norwich City fan can say this,
• 26:17
  then really, it's all over. But again, well done Ed Although
• 26:22
  was private, I would say that's probably enough.
• 26:24
  Ed Ed actually, actually I say that.
• 26:28
  But before we sign off, just one very quick story which is back
• 26:32
  on the topic of live music as it goes.
• 26:34
  And this this is as you've just mentioned, it's another
• 26:37
  initiative which Mr. Sheeran has been a supporter of.
• 26:40
  This is Music Venue Properties, which is the project dreamt up
• 26:44
  by the Music Venue Trust. We've mentioned it before, Music
• 26:47
  Venue Properties is a charitable community benefit society which
• 26:51
  to when it's trying to buy up grass roots venues to ensure
• 26:55
  their long term future. So they raised I think in the
• 26:58
  first year something like £2.3 million and then started to
• 27:04
  acquire venues. The idea being you can then
• 27:09
  release the venues from having to worry about paying ever
• 27:13
  increasing rent. So much of the venues income
• 27:16
  goes on rent to the landlord. So you take away some of that.
• 27:22
  Also, it gives the venues some sort of a solid, more solid
• 27:28
  future. Because if you don't have to
• 27:30
  worry about what will happen when the lease is up and there
• 27:33
  are a lot of venues where the people who run them would like
• 27:35
  to spend a bit of money making them better.
• 27:38
  We'll take the toilets up and improve the sound system.
• 27:41
  We need some new lights. We would do all that, but we do.
• 27:43
  We're not going to invest because our lease is up in a
• 27:47
  year's time and we don't know if the landlord you knew it so you
• 27:50
  have a much clearer idea of your future.
• 27:54
  Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning all this is because
• 27:56
  Music Venue Properties bought another venue which they
• 28:00
  announced last week. So it's this in this case.
• 28:05
  This time around, the much loved Newport venue LA Pub is now part
• 28:09
  of the MVP community. I think there was a gig, I think
• 28:13
  our old friend get Kate Ware, Kate Sam Duckworth went down and
• 28:17
  played, but there was a gig, I think, and of course the
• 28:19
  obligatory unveiling of a plaque.
• 28:22
  But yes. And they're a lovely group of
• 28:25
  people, Sam and the gang at La Pub.
• 28:28
  But the future of LA Pub is now safe.
• 28:30
  I don't. I mean, I'd love to know how
• 28:32
  much they're they're they're getting these venues for.
• 28:35
  I'd love to know if landlords, as soon as they get a whiff of
• 28:40
  MVP, wanting to buy what that does to the price of a venue.
• 28:46
  But maybe we'll talk to somebody about that.
• 28:49
  When when you. Said that when you said that.
• 28:51
  I'd love to know what it was like.
• 28:52
  You almost sound like you were thinking in the back of your
• 28:54
  brain. I could buy it.
• 28:55
  Yeah. I.
• 28:57
  Should have that thought or do do you hear it?
• 28:59
  Do you see enough of the business to go now, now?
• 29:01
  That would be well, that's I mean that's it's the I mean I
• 29:04
  have never ever not a scene. I have never bought a lottery
• 29:08
  ticket. I wouldn't even know how to fill
• 29:10
  one in. So it's so it's a dumb question.
• 29:13
  What would you do if you won the lottery?
• 29:15
  But you know it's a choice, isn't it put money into
• 29:19
  Colchester United, buy a venue, buy some venues probably buy a
• 29:23
  venue. Imagine being the owner of a
• 29:25
  venue. I mean you if.
• 29:28
  If you were the owner and you could do people running it who
• 29:30
  knew what they were doing, so all you had to do was kind of
• 29:32
  turn up and look proud. That's what you need.
• 29:35
  You need a team around if you know what they're doing.
• 29:36
  And then you can just like like a kind of, you know, like in
• 29:39
  football, though, be the controlling shareholder without
• 29:41
  actually having to appoint and managers and.
• 29:43
  Yeah, well, we can. We can but dream.
• 29:47
  That's it. Time's time's up for this week.
• 29:49
  Thank you very much for listening.
• 29:50
  If you have enjoyed the show, please do subscribe in your
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• 30:32
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• 30:34
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• 30:37
  music industry and how it's finances work, e-mail is your
• 30:41
  questions to the Price of Music, podcast@gmail.com.
• 30:46
  And that's it. You're away next week at a
• 30:48
  conference, I think. Oh, do you know, it's it's our
• 30:52
  own conference musical everyone conference in London.
• 30:54
  Yeah. So I'll be, I'm actually, I'm
• 30:56
  interviewing the boss of the IFPI, which is going to be
• 30:59
  quite. Fun remind people what is the
• 31:02
  IFPI. It's the global labels body.
• 31:05
  So she's called victorically. It's fascinating character.
• 31:07
  She's now boss of the recorded industry body.
• 31:10
  But she was before that she used to be the ambassador to
• 31:12
  Barbados. I think she was.
• 31:14
  She was an ambassador to, she's a diplomatic veteran and then
• 31:18
  she went to Google. And so that's that.
• 31:20
  But yeah, it's an exciting, we've got, we've got Apple
• 31:22
  speaking about streaming fraud that it's going to be kind of
• 31:24
  some good stories coming out of it, I think.
• 31:26
  So when I do come back, I'll have I'll come back with Intel.
• 31:29
  Excellent. In the meantime, I'm delighted
• 31:31
  to say that in Stuart's place next week, fingers crossed, all
• 31:35
  being well, I'll be interviewing former Cocteau twin and now head
• 31:39
  of the brilliant record label, Bella Union Records.
• 31:42
  Simon Raymond will be our guest next week.
• 31:45
  Till then, take care of yourselves everybody.
• 31:47
  Cheerio. None.